Late Draw Drama In Parramatta

[mack]

The Western Sydney Wanderers hosted the top of the table Central Coast Mariners with the home side needing a win to stay in touch with the top 4. A late injury to Jordon Mutch saw the midfield shuffled and the attacking weapons of Nicolai Muller and James Troisi both starting. The end result was a 2-2 draw with the lead swapping multiple times.

The Wanderers had a great chance from the ex-Mariner Ziggy Gordon, he got on the end of a great whipped in-swinging corner at the 6 yard box, rose above the defender and nodded the ball just over the crossbar. Nicolai Muller then had a shot from long range after the Mariners failed to clear their lines, the shot low and aimed at the far post but not strong enough to trouble Mark Birighitti.

Despite the good start the Wanderers defensive structure collapsed and the Mariners took full advantage. The Mariners easily played out against a high press as Daniel Wilmering stayed in his own half rather than following the press. With a paddock in the centre of the pitch Marco Urena strode toward the Wanderers penalty area untroubled, even with three central defenders they were caught square, Urena played in Matt Simon and Wanderers keeper Daniel Margush tried to close down the striker and was chipped into an open net. It was a top to bottom defensive failure and one that just keeps happening week in week out.

Margush ran out of the area and made a mess of his attempted header clearance. Thankfully for the keeper the ball didn't drop for a shot and instead Urena tried a 25 yard header which was on target but cleared off the line by Daniel Wilmering. A goal mouth scramble had the Wanderers incapable of clearing, having to scramble with every drop of the ball. It finally fell to the Mariners and it took Margush rapidly closing down the strike to keep the score to 1-0. Moments before halt-time the Wanderers had a golden chance when Birighitti's punch found Troisi but his weak volley landed in the keepers hands like a gifted Easter egg on last Sunday.

5 minutes after the break the Wanderers had a brilliant chance to equalise. Bernie Ibini lightstepped through the Mariners defence, beating two defenders then playing it across the penalty area for Mitch Duke. As it appeared that Duke would at the very least get a shot on target, Gianni Stensness came out of nowhere, flung his body at the feet of Duke and blocked the chance. In the 57th minute the Wanderers manufactured an opportunity through Wilmering, who fed the ball to Ibini and his layoff was met by Duke with a tame effort that Birighitti had covered easily.

In the 65th the Wanderers conceded a corner and nearly another goal. Daniel Bouman leapt and forced a good save out of Margush. They nearly scored seconds later when Jack Clisby stumbled into the penalty area, the Wanderers couldn't get the ball off him and after some pinball wizardry Clisby found a shot that beat Margush but not Aquilina who cleared it off the line.

Simon Cox and Bruce Kamau were introduced to the game and made a big impact. Cox did what no-one else had done all game and turned toward the opposition goal not away from it, he passed to Aquilina on the flank and his low cross was attacked and scored by Kamau.

The Mariners should have retaken the lead, a simple in-swinging corner found Stensness 6 yards out from goal with no-one marking him, and with Margush rooted to the goal-line Stensness somehow turned the ball out for a goal kick.

The Wanderers punished them seconds later to take the lead. Kamau ran at the defence, fired a speculative shot at goal that took a wicked deflection and nestled into the bottom corner to make it 2-1 to the home side.

Keanu Baccus gave away a penalty in the 82nd minute via the VAR. A high ball that fell on the edge of the penalty area, Baccus tried to clear but was beaten to the dropping ball by Alou Kuol. After a long examination of the replay Oli Bozanic stepped to the penalty spot and equalised, making it 2-2 with a length stoppage time period to come.

In the 93rd the Wanderers nearly stole the winner. Troisi found his way into the Mariners area, picking out Aquilina on the other side. The high ball was met by Aquilina's head, it looped over Birighitti and impacted the crossbar and came away from the goal. It was oh so close to a not quite deserved winner. The Wanderers should have had a very late penalty when Bruce Kamau was shoved in the back as he was about to shoot, instead the referee and VAR declined to give the clear foul and the game ended not long after with both sides taking a point. Wanderers coach Kenny Miller was red carded on the sideline after the final whistle to add just another touch of drama.

The Wanderers face Adelaide United with a quick turn around. The side travels to Adelaide for a 7:10PM kick-off on Saturday the 10th of April.

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[ANZAC]

Hey Siri, what does clear and obvious mean?

[ZachMercer]

4 minutes ago, ANZAC said:

Hey Siri, what does clear and obvious mean?

carnivorous

/kɑːˈnɪv(ə)rəs/

Learn to pronounce

adjective

(of an animal) feeding on other animals.

[WHACKO]

4 minutes ago, ANZAC said:

Hey Siri, what does clear and obvious mean?

It's clear you're the Wanderers and it's obvious I'll f.u.c.k you over.

[WSWJACK]

If Muller needs a taxi for the airport I’ll drive him, he’s lost his mojo

[matty]

Kuol penalty was rubbish. Should've got a yellow, he went in studs first, check the replay.

[pseudonym]

Good game for the neutrals

Really should have been scheduled for a Saturday or Sunday

I'm ok with the draw 

At least we have a little thing to taunt the Smurfs about

"Imagine losing to the Mariners this season, can't be my club"

[MathyouWSW]

[marron]

1 minute ago, matty said:

Kuol penalty was rubbish. Should've got a yellow, he went in studs first, check the replay.

At the very least, it's unclear. Yep, he's gone in studs up. Did HE make contact? Did he get the ball? Was he hit? YOU CANNOT TELL. How some out of breath ****er can look at a telly screen on ONE ANGLE and decide all that when we could argue over it inconclusively till the end of time and then overturn what he had already seen with his own eyes is beyond me.

If it's clear and obvious the VAR should already have decided anyway.

None of it makes any sense.

[EmMac]

I was at the game. If that was a genuine penalty for Mariners then we should have been given one for the push on Kamau. Its absolute bullshite decision.

[redpanther61]

Miller’s been a passenger all season, it time he got on a plane and ...... off!

[matty]

1 minute ago, marron said:

At the very least, it's unclear. Yep, he's gone in studs up. Did HE make contact? Did he get the ball? Was he hit? YOU CANNOT TELL. How some out of breath ****er can look at a telly screen on ONE ANGLE and decide all that when we could argue over it inconclusively till the end of time and then overturn what he had already seen with his own eyes is beyond me.

If it's clear and obvious the VAR should already have decided anyway.

None of it makes any sense.

Indeed

[redpanther61]

That should say Muller!

[redpanther61]

I can’t understand why CR persists with Muller and Ibini. They walk around the ground barely breaking a sweat and when it comes time to defend have an uncanny knack to find empty space with no opposition player in cooee of them. It’s also about time Bachus was dropped, he gives the ball away too many times.

[FCB]

Beath vs WSW 1:0. Worst ref in the comp. Makes a mockery of the HAL.

And somewhere in Bavaria, a currently unemployed football coach, after hearing the name Beath, developed a sudden and severe stomach ache. Only after a few hearty burbs, smelly farts and diarreah, did his digestive tract settle down. 

[matty]

How many times have we had Faghanni this season??

[mack]

1 minute ago, matty said:

How many times have we had Faghanni this season??

Once. 2-2 draw vs Wellington in late Feb.

[MathyouWSW]

Anyway...let's get down to business.

Margush provided an A+ performance tonight. It makes me worried though if he gets the Olyroos call up. But, do you blame him if he gets it? No, just means the defense needs to improve.

Speaking of defense, McGowan can get to the Newcastle Jets while we get Ugarkovic. When Stensness did that blunder and missed the header, McGowan has he hands out with frustration and said "who's defending him?". Dylan, last time I checked...you're a CENTRAL DEFENDER. Do your f*cking job! 

I lost count of how many times I heard Harper say "...and Baccus losses possession" or something equivalent to that throughout the game. He just doesn't live up to the expectations we used to see from him. How about he goes to the Jets while Ugarkovic joins the Wanderers?

I said this during the game but Ibini and Muller frustrated the f*ck out of me. Ibini was standing too far wide on the right hand side of the field while Muller did it on the left hand side of the field where it honestly felt like at one stage, the squad was in a 5-2-3 formation and had open spaces in the midfield. Then, you had Troisi who forgot that tonight he was supposed to play as a CDM kept moving up his position and trying to do sh*t chip kicks against Birighitti thus meaning McGowan was moving up as well...and it made it feel like a 4-2-3-1 formation.

I just like to say that Robinson (or the club) made a smart decision to re-sign Kamau since at one stage during the pre-season, it looked like he was going to be without a club or most likely heading back to Adelaide. After tonight's performance, I would be offering an extension. 

[tardotz]

TBH I am happy with a draw. I think it is more than we deserved. We were really bad in the 1st half with a bit of improvement in the second. We can complain about the ref and VAR but when we cannot pass the ball or mark players you cannot expect much.

Why CR keeps starting with the likes of Baccus, Troisi and Ibini week after week is crazy. We are always chasing the game and usually have 20 mins to rescue something.

[pseudonym]

 

[GunnerWanderer]

Yeah agree with most troisi and Ibini hade had enough games by now and it’s not happening for them 

baccus work rate is tremendous he just mentally sometimes isn’t there and it costs him dearly 

the second half was fantastic end to end viewing another great A-League game so many this season

Game could have went either way that last near play where Cox gets the ball and if only he can run he’s one on one with keeper  and probably buries it - if that’s laFondre or Jamie Mac it’s a goal 

Cox is just too **** slow to be a striker I figure that’s why Ibini gets a run ahead of him even thought Cox is smart and talented footballer his pace is like over 35/s poor guy seems so intent on delivering 

[Frankos187]

What’s amazing is that we have 1000 central midfielders and no one on the bench to sub baccus off at half time

[scarcev]

yea we were unlucky in the end, with them getting a dodgy pen and Kamau not getting his pen (since when do you need to fall to get a pen?) and Aquilina hitting the crossbar but in reality we were trash for 60mins, totally out muscled and we looked slow and if CCM finished their chances or we didn't have Margush on fire we find ourselves 4 down.  The fact that we continue to look for our kid wingers as our only attacking outlet and never play forward or through teams but try to always goes around them is frustrating as hell.  Kamau went direct for the first time (of any player) in the 70th minute to score his goal, noone went direct before or after that, the rest was just play around them and get a hopeful cross into our midget forwards against giants.  Frustrating, only positive was we showed a bit of spirit when the subs came on. 

[Frankos187]

Disregarding the poor officiating again:
 

We can’t play out. Forget formations, we can’t string 4-5 forward passes together. We give the ball away under pressure so easily. It took 60-70min for something to finally work (Kamau goal: quality). 
 

I’ll say it week in and week out: Muller is done. I don’t mind Troisi as an #8. Our wingbacks are not good enough to be a top 2 team in the system that we play. 

[sonar]

Is it just me or do others get really annoyed at how we seem to hang off attackers in our defensive third. ?.....especially on the flanks. There were so many instances of us hanging back and allowing the Mariners to bomb the ball in from out wide. Does my head in.....that and a few other things tbh....lol 

[Frankos187]

5 minutes ago, sonar said:

Is it just me or do others get really annoyed at how we seem to hang off attackers in our defensive third. ?.....especially on the flanks. There were so many instances of us hanging back and allowing the Mariners to bomb the ball in from out wide. Does my head in.....that and a few other things tbh....lol 

The formation we play usually allows the opposing teams LB and RB to bomb on down the line. Wilmering and Aquilina can’t commit too early as they may expose the CBs. So they get out eventually but by then we have given the wingbacks atleast 3-4 seconds to receive the ball and decide what to do next. 

[Potkorok]

We were bad for the first 60min or so but really improved once Cox and Kamau came on. Momentum was really with us and that's the other frustration with bs VAR and penalty. It stopped the game and then they get the penalty and all the momentum suddenly swings back to them. It's a double whammy. I'm not defending the frustrating nature of some of our play - the first half was dire - but far out it's deflating when we suddenly improve and then get stuffed over by VAR for the gazillionth time....

Oh and simple A league rule for our simple refs. Player fall over = penalty. Player not fall over = don't even check VAR. Seriously it's amateur hour with the officiating in this league 

[WSWJACK]

Cox has his shortcomings but must come back in now, Cox for 60 then Ibini for 30 best damage scenario, Duke's lost a bit of form too but i can forgive and persist with Duke he has put credits in the bank.

Keep Brucie as impact sub he seems to excel at it. just like Fairclough for Liverpool in the eighties - supersub !

[SBW]

CR cannot mask the incompetence of Beath's performance when his system is clearly not working.

The playing out, the possession football, being so **** slow on the ball, the endless passes to no where this season have killed us. City, Roar and Mariners have closed us down very quickly as soon as we have the ball and they have been able to to go on a quick counter and see have to defend and play deep because of this.

The should have been could have been would have been in the last 5 minutes doesn't matter when our football in the first 70 minutes has been pathetic.

[StringerBellend]

7 hours ago, WSWJACK said:

Cox has his shortcomings but must come back in now, Cox for 60 then Ibini for 30 best damage scenario, Duke's lost a bit of form too but i can forgive and persist with Duke he has put credits in the bank.

Keep Brucie as impact sub he seems to excel at it. just like Fairclough for Liverpool in the eighties - supersub !

Yep Cox made a massive difference, just by moving into space and to the ball. Ibini either doesn’t move at all or runs behind a defender making it impossible to get the ball to him 

He was doing my head in 

The dodgy pen disguises that we were crap for at least 65 mins